Piers Morgan ferociously grilled Michael Gove on Prime Minister Boris Johnson "once again giving false hope" following yet another government u-turn.
The Prime Minister ordered schools to shut last night - after just one day back after Christmas - and told people again to "stay at home" in a return to the stark messaging from March.
Confirming that there would be a third national lockdown, Mr Johnson said that all schools will be closed until mid-February.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain today, Mr Gove was confronted with various clips of the Prime Minister saying that schools were safe.
Millions of children returned to school for one day yesterday - before the government imposed a national lockdown and closed schools.
"Can you explain to me how it is that that decision was taken?" Piers demanded, pointing out that "millions of children [were] mingling at the height of this pandemic".
Mr Gove explained that England had moved to the highest alert level yesterday, adding: "The last thing that we wanted to do was close schools."
Piers questioned "what is the point in sending people out for one day" and said that "it was bleedingly obvious [lockdown] was going to happen".
"It's the prime minister once again giving false hope," Piers fumed. "It just seems to me that even to a complete dimbo this was the worst possible thing to do."
But Mr Gove responded: "You are also right Piers that we reluctantly came to this conclusion after the advice from medical officers yesterday."
Also appearing on Sky News this morning, Mr Gove admitted that new lockdown rules could last until March.
He warned that hte country was in for a “very difficult” few weeks and could give no firm date for lifting the lockdown.
He told Sky News: “The Government is doing everything it can in order to ensure that we can roll out the vaccine more rapidly, help the vulnerable by getting the inoculations they need and make sure that at the end of what will inevitably be very, very difficult weeks, that life can eventually return to normal.”
Pressed on whether the lockdown was likely to last until March, Mr Gove added: “We will be able to review the progress that we’ve made on February 15, just before the traditional school half-term, and we hope that we will be able to progressively lift restrictions after that but what I can’t do is predict – nobody can predict – with accuracy exactly what we will be able to relax and when.
“What we do know is that the more effective our vaccination programme, the more people who are protected in that way, the easier it will be to lift these restrictions.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer also appeared on GMB today and said that he had wanted schools to stay open, but that it had been inevitable that they would close in a national lockdown.
However, he confirmed that he would press the government in parliament today on how they are aiming to ensure school children have access to home learning resources.
*Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV
